Caccabis Chakor 93 



but some distance to one side of where he ap- 

 proached the sunk fence, giving him a long shot. 

 One bird, however, drops, and another, wounded, 

 brings up the tail of the covey as they wheel 

 round and pitch among the rocks, about where 

 the fields end and the hill slopes begin. At the 

 double report another cunning old cock gets up 

 from under his feet, and goes away without being 

 shot at. 



The report has had the effect of disturbing 

 two more lots of birds, and he marks them down 

 also among the rocks away to the left, and from 

 the clamour that arises from the hillside the stones 

 must be full of them. Our sportsman, however, 

 follows the first covey, and soon arrives among 

 the debris of broken rocks where he had marked 

 them. There they are, fifty yards ahead now, 

 fat grey little chaps, jumping from rock to rock 

 up the hillside. " They can't go fast on this 

 ground, and if that fifty yards can be reduced 

 by twenty, I ought to put them up and get a 

 brace." Never was a more grievous error made. 

 After ten minutes' frantic climbing, tumbling, and 

 slipping over the loose rocks, he finds himself 

 half-cooked, with the chakor, fresh as ever, re- 

 taining their lead. He now bethinks himself of 

 strategy, or, we will rather say, tactics, for his 

 strategy is wrong from the start. A small dry 



